Catch up

It has been a crazy week.
Monday started me off in the emergency room of Wills Eye Emergency Room in Center City Philadelphia. Believe me this is not where I wanted to end up. Last Thursday I developed something in my eye. It was red and then on Friday it really started to hurt when I blinked. When I looked at it it seemed to have some sort of infected blister on the white of my eye. My theories were 1. some more sumac attacked me (because I seem to have a plantation in the back yard), or 2. when I was stripping the window, I had a reaction to something.
I had an appointment to see my doctor Monday night. My eye was completely bloodshot, painful, and looked teary. People couldn't talk to me without saying, "what's with your eye?" . The doctor in family medicine took one look at me and sent me over to the eye emergency room saying she couldn't do anything for me. "Don't worry," she said, "it's not like a regular emergency room, you'll see someone right away."
Pshaw!
I walked in and there were at least a dozen people in the waiting room. I registered and it took an hour and a half to see a doctor. I finally got in the door and a nurse took my vitals, etc. and then sent me back out to the waiting room with a fancy bracelet with all of my specifics. An hour after that the other registrar took all of my insurance info. I asked her what the timeline was like and she told me it was hard to say. There was a teenager who wouldn't let anyone touch him (I'd already seen him come out into the waiting area cussing a blue streak about people not touching his f***ing eye!) and then a little boy had been admitted who needed emergency surgery.
Finally, four hours later, I saw a doctor (who I have to say was very good - completely stressed out it was obvious - but she was good because she was still very personable.) She didn't know what was going on, looked at my eyes, told me I had a freckle on the back of my eye ("did you know that?") then decided to dilate them. Oh yeah. And then she started poking my eye with a Q-tip. "Does that hurt?" Yes! dammit!
After that - she decided she didn't know what the problem was. She thinks I have "scleritis" - an inflammation of the sclera (doesn't that clear things up?). She said they didn't know what causes it. The treatment is an enormous does of ibuprofen and then because the dose is so enormous, (which might cause stomach bleeding), another dose of something else to deter the stomach bleeding. This is modern medicine? I didn't take the prescription.
At about midnight on Monday, in center city Philadelphia, I was released from the emergency room with my eyes completely dilated. Yay. I caught a cab home, thought it was safest. And it was. Except that I couldn't see the credit card machine to swipe my credit card. I gave the guy a big tip, told him what was up and asked him to watch me get into my house. He did.
And then, there is always icing on the cake....
I had let Jacques out before I went to the doctor and didn't put him back thinking I wouldn't be gone so long. Watsuki must have let him in at some point in the evening which was great. However, she didn't' have the key to apartment so Jacques was stuck in the stairwell. Poor guy. I was so relieved to be home, even though I could barely see and I made it almost to the top of the stairs... when I stepped right into the poop Jacques had made 2nd stair from the top. sigh. One can only laugh at this point. I didn't even see it. I let him in - fed him and then went back out trying to see out of the corners of my eyes to clean everything up. I did the best I could.
I've been trying to recover since Monday night. The junk the doctor put in my eye seems to have helped. The infection started going down by the next day. The redness was quite reduced, and today it's very minimal. I was supposed to go to the doctor on Friday, but then they said I had to have a referral from my regular doctor. (?) Which I tried to take care of but you all know how bureaucracy works. So I postponed the appointment until next Friday. Hopefully I can get the referral - I just really want then to check on things and make sure everything is as good as it can be.
Needless to say, I've been recovering from that evening ever since.
I'm still working on my window sills. I tried using my heat gun but after I burned the wood I decided to stick with the liquid paint stripper. I did try to use the super fast stuff - and promptly burned my arm with that crap. From now on- the Orange Stripper is the only stuff for me. It might be a bit slower and smell funny, but it does the job, it doesn't burn my skin if some accidentally gets on, and yeah, well, that's enough.
This could possibly be the summer project. It will be worth it once it's done. I'm sure it will be beautiful! Plus I'll be able to close shutters. I'm pretty excited about that.
And lastly, while I should have been making a graduation gift for a friend of mine's daughter, I worked on a dress. I feel a bit guilty about it - but I think I really needed a break from my "to do" list.
The dress sewing was prompted by a co-worker, who has been trying to sew an apron dress for a while. I found the pattern she was looking for in my stash-o-patterns when I was cleaning my studio. Ever since then I've been craving the chance to sew my own. I know it has been at least two years because the last time I sewed was in my apartment. And if I'm right - the last time I sewed any clothes was even on South Street which was back in 2003. Oh, no, I did sew some blouses for myself on Spring Garden St. But that was back in 2005-6. So at least four years since I've sewed something for myself. And with this co-worker talking about it quite often - I was feeling the itch to cut some fabric.

This is what I made.
It's a dress I've made once before, with ultramarine raw silk. Backless. But I was 22 at the time. When I tried this on without the yellow addition, I realized, that I can't go backless anymore. For one thing - I still have the tan-line from two years ago when I was wearing a tank top in the garden and got a sun burn. This doesn't look too good backless. So I added the golden piece which covers the rotten tan line, and that part, I think, looks okay. But I did also do some "inventing" on my own and made the skirt a bit wider than the pattern calls for. I'm not sure it looks great. Hmm, We'll have to see. I'll have to try it on for someone I trust to give me an honest opinion.
This week is the Rare Book and Manuscripts Librarians Conference in Philadelphia. There is a big book fair on Wednesday. I should be working on things for that. Instead I'm sitting in front of the fan trying not to sweat too much. There is only so much a person can do in one day.